Jackson Moses
TDPRI Member
Hey, so I just got this Benson fuzz pedal and I’m really impressed with it. My initial review here is for the skeptics, because I’d say I fell into that category with regard to this product. I had the Benson preamp before and it was great but not really for me, so it got traded. I strongly believe this fuzz is going to stick around, it’s the business.
THE TLDR:
It’s worth it, it sounds awesome, all the weird updates/temperature control/pickup simulator work WAY better than expected, and it’s become my favorite fuzz. Also I don’t think these are gonna be available for long. Get the white one it you care about the temp control.
THE TECHNICAL STUFF:
So I guess basically it’s a germanium fuzz face, with a couple (slightly gimmicky-sounding) new features. All this adds up to a $300 fuzz pedal, which totally would have put me off if I hadn’t had some store credit burning a hole in my pocket. The big thing is the temperature control; as we all know, germanium is a pain and gets VERY troublesome on a hot stage or cold floor. Benson put a heating element in here that keeps the germanium transistors at a consistent temperature (I believe it’s around 100 degrees).
This part is IMPORTANT, because I’ve noticed it isn’t really registering with everyone: even though the pedal only heats up the transistors and doesn’t cool them, it is STILL DESIGNED TO HELP WITH HOT STAGES/OUTDOOR SHOWS. The idea was to set up the transistors to work BEST when they would usually be OVERHEATING, so the hot stage lights will be no problem. That would usually make them sound crappy at normal room temperatures, but the heater takes care of that issue. It’s a clever way to avoid having to have a heating AND cooling element. I just mention this because people tend to have more problems with heat and germanium fuzzes, so I’ve read a few comments asking why anyone would want a fuzz that gets hotter. It’s a fair question, but it’s set up and biased to run hot.
Of course it’s winter right now so I haven’t been able to test this extensively, but I set the pedal in front of my heater (which blows out super hot air, it’s actually kind of oppressive) and I detected no change in sound playing for an hour or so. It seems like the black version of the pedal loses a lot of this benefit as it runs up to 20 degrees hotter in sunlight, so I think the white one is the way to go if you care about the temperature thing. Plus I have a million black pedals, and it seems the creator has said the white one is better for the intended purpose.
The other unusual feature is the impedance knob. This knob represents a whole circuit designed to allow the fuzz to run anywhere in the signal chain, work after buffers, and work with wah pedals. As I’m sure everyone is aware, germanium fuzzes hate being after buffers and really have to be placed first in the signal chain to get the benefit of rolling back the guitar volume to clean up. The Benson fuzz has a buffer at the input which is followed by a passive pickup simulator. You can think of the impedance knob as like the volume knob on your guitar, but on the pedal. It sort of “tricks” the fuzz circuit into thinking it’s being driven by a guitar pickup even when it ISN’T first in the chain. So it cleans up in that sparkly way when you roll the impedance knob up.
THE REVIEW / MY THOUGHTS:
This thing is amazing. It’s quickly become my favorite fuzz. I honestly was not interested in these when I saw them online; like I said before, it sounded kind of like a gimmick. I mean I get that the extra R&D and the heating circuit would make it a bit pricey, but there are a lot of great fuzz pedals out there.
I happened to see these a day or two after they came out at a guitar store I go to a lot. I tried one and was immediately sold.
The tone is amazing, low-ish gain for a fuzz. Don’t get me wrong, it can get pretty fuzzy, but it’s ALWAYS got that little bit of sparkle. The cool thing is that even when it’s cranked it’s super dynamic. With single coils, I can get a clean tone with the gain maxed out just by picking lightly, and then get full-on fuzz my hitting hard. I’ve never played a fuzz with this kind of headroom-feel, it reminds me of playing my Timmy.
The tone itself is subjective, and may vary a little based on individual transistors and stuff, but I love it. Crunchy, chimey and fuzzy. There are so many sounds to be found by messing with the impedance knob, gain knob, and guitar volume knob. It does great dirty boost tones, and it’s a better overdrive than most of my overdrives. I see it as an I overdrive-y fuzz overall and have been using it that way. It’s versatility immediately earned it a place in my board.
Another important thing: YOU CAN STILL ROLL BACK THE GUITAR VOLUME TO CLEAN IT UP. I don’t know how they managed to make that work with the buffer and analog pickup simulator circuit, but it still totally cleans up the way you’d expect.
Now the thing that’s most exciting to me is the ability to put this anywhere on my board. Since it doesn’t have to be the very first pedal anymore, I’m having fun experimenting with pedal order. It sounds awesome after a boost or overdrive, and no weird reactions to any of the pedals I’ve put it after. The part that really blew my mind is that the guitar volume knob STILL CLEANS UP EVEN WHEN THERE ARE OTHER PEDALS IN FRONT!! Again, I don’t know how they did it. It’s like there are simply no compromises.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
I know this post is long but hopefully it’s helpful to someone. I wasn’t really interested in this pedal but clearly I’ve changed my tune. It’s fantastic and I’m having a blast playing it, and I’ve gotten lost playing for hours a few times recently. I’ll let you all know if it turns out it was just honeymoon phase blabbering, but it’s usually a good sign when I keep pulling out a new pedal to mess around with instead of old favorites.
One thing to note (just because I think it’s cool) is that these are all hand wired by the Benson team in Portland instead of contracted out to Keeley like the Benson Preamp. I guess Benson developed this partly to keep his team working during the pandemic, which is cool. Some of the press releases are already mentioning that these will only be made when the parts are available, so I don’t know how long they’ll be around, or if future runs will be different (or if they’ll still be hand wired) so I’d say if you’re interested you should grab one soon! I’m glad I did, even though a $300 fuzz pedal sounded crazy to me a week ago
I attached a pic of the fuzz and also a signal chain I was messing with where the fuzz is after my Timmy (I haven’t put this set up on a board yet, still experimenting). It sounded great btw; gritty and chimey, and cleaned up nice!
THE TLDR:
It’s worth it, it sounds awesome, all the weird updates/temperature control/pickup simulator work WAY better than expected, and it’s become my favorite fuzz. Also I don’t think these are gonna be available for long. Get the white one it you care about the temp control.
THE TECHNICAL STUFF:
So I guess basically it’s a germanium fuzz face, with a couple (slightly gimmicky-sounding) new features. All this adds up to a $300 fuzz pedal, which totally would have put me off if I hadn’t had some store credit burning a hole in my pocket. The big thing is the temperature control; as we all know, germanium is a pain and gets VERY troublesome on a hot stage or cold floor. Benson put a heating element in here that keeps the germanium transistors at a consistent temperature (I believe it’s around 100 degrees).
This part is IMPORTANT, because I’ve noticed it isn’t really registering with everyone: even though the pedal only heats up the transistors and doesn’t cool them, it is STILL DESIGNED TO HELP WITH HOT STAGES/OUTDOOR SHOWS. The idea was to set up the transistors to work BEST when they would usually be OVERHEATING, so the hot stage lights will be no problem. That would usually make them sound crappy at normal room temperatures, but the heater takes care of that issue. It’s a clever way to avoid having to have a heating AND cooling element. I just mention this because people tend to have more problems with heat and germanium fuzzes, so I’ve read a few comments asking why anyone would want a fuzz that gets hotter. It’s a fair question, but it’s set up and biased to run hot.
Of course it’s winter right now so I haven’t been able to test this extensively, but I set the pedal in front of my heater (which blows out super hot air, it’s actually kind of oppressive) and I detected no change in sound playing for an hour or so. It seems like the black version of the pedal loses a lot of this benefit as it runs up to 20 degrees hotter in sunlight, so I think the white one is the way to go if you care about the temperature thing. Plus I have a million black pedals, and it seems the creator has said the white one is better for the intended purpose.
The other unusual feature is the impedance knob. This knob represents a whole circuit designed to allow the fuzz to run anywhere in the signal chain, work after buffers, and work with wah pedals. As I’m sure everyone is aware, germanium fuzzes hate being after buffers and really have to be placed first in the signal chain to get the benefit of rolling back the guitar volume to clean up. The Benson fuzz has a buffer at the input which is followed by a passive pickup simulator. You can think of the impedance knob as like the volume knob on your guitar, but on the pedal. It sort of “tricks” the fuzz circuit into thinking it’s being driven by a guitar pickup even when it ISN’T first in the chain. So it cleans up in that sparkly way when you roll the impedance knob up.
THE REVIEW / MY THOUGHTS:
This thing is amazing. It’s quickly become my favorite fuzz. I honestly was not interested in these when I saw them online; like I said before, it sounded kind of like a gimmick. I mean I get that the extra R&D and the heating circuit would make it a bit pricey, but there are a lot of great fuzz pedals out there.
I happened to see these a day or two after they came out at a guitar store I go to a lot. I tried one and was immediately sold.
The tone is amazing, low-ish gain for a fuzz. Don’t get me wrong, it can get pretty fuzzy, but it’s ALWAYS got that little bit of sparkle. The cool thing is that even when it’s cranked it’s super dynamic. With single coils, I can get a clean tone with the gain maxed out just by picking lightly, and then get full-on fuzz my hitting hard. I’ve never played a fuzz with this kind of headroom-feel, it reminds me of playing my Timmy.
The tone itself is subjective, and may vary a little based on individual transistors and stuff, but I love it. Crunchy, chimey and fuzzy. There are so many sounds to be found by messing with the impedance knob, gain knob, and guitar volume knob. It does great dirty boost tones, and it’s a better overdrive than most of my overdrives. I see it as an I overdrive-y fuzz overall and have been using it that way. It’s versatility immediately earned it a place in my board.
Another important thing: YOU CAN STILL ROLL BACK THE GUITAR VOLUME TO CLEAN IT UP. I don’t know how they managed to make that work with the buffer and analog pickup simulator circuit, but it still totally cleans up the way you’d expect.
Now the thing that’s most exciting to me is the ability to put this anywhere on my board. Since it doesn’t have to be the very first pedal anymore, I’m having fun experimenting with pedal order. It sounds awesome after a boost or overdrive, and no weird reactions to any of the pedals I’ve put it after. The part that really blew my mind is that the guitar volume knob STILL CLEANS UP EVEN WHEN THERE ARE OTHER PEDALS IN FRONT!! Again, I don’t know how they did it. It’s like there are simply no compromises.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
I know this post is long but hopefully it’s helpful to someone. I wasn’t really interested in this pedal but clearly I’ve changed my tune. It’s fantastic and I’m having a blast playing it, and I’ve gotten lost playing for hours a few times recently. I’ll let you all know if it turns out it was just honeymoon phase blabbering, but it’s usually a good sign when I keep pulling out a new pedal to mess around with instead of old favorites.
One thing to note (just because I think it’s cool) is that these are all hand wired by the Benson team in Portland instead of contracted out to Keeley like the Benson Preamp. I guess Benson developed this partly to keep his team working during the pandemic, which is cool. Some of the press releases are already mentioning that these will only be made when the parts are available, so I don’t know how long they’ll be around, or if future runs will be different (or if they’ll still be hand wired) so I’d say if you’re interested you should grab one soon! I’m glad I did, even though a $300 fuzz pedal sounded crazy to me a week ago
I attached a pic of the fuzz and also a signal chain I was messing with where the fuzz is after my Timmy (I haven’t put this set up on a board yet, still experimenting). It sounded great btw; gritty and chimey, and cleaned up nice!
